Episode 040
Vera is in spiteful form in the dining room at breakfast: Bea hits it on the nose by joking that she obviously wasn't given the Governorship after the VJ's report. Jim Fletcher from Pentridge arrives to take up the post of Deputy Governor. Erica tells Meg and Vera he was at Pentridge for 10 years, and before that was a Sergeant in the Army, serving three years in Vietnam. When Jim is brought to Erica's office, Vera avoids shaking hands with him. The women work themselves into a major argument just before Jim is brought into the dining room to be introduced to them. Jim annoys Meg with his assumption that work release will be for unmarried women only, and says that married women would be better off learning how to look after their husbands and children. Jim cuts Greg short when he tries to give him some helpful advice, and points out he knows what it's like in prison. Lizzie bursts into the surgery, and Jim surprisingly doesn't seem annoyed. Meg and Vera swap impressions of the new officer: neither of them are particularly impressed, and Vera is downright bitter. Bea introduces herself to Jim as "sort of the Union boss", but he tells her she won't be in any doubt who's in charge while she's around. Irini's fine is paid and she is released, only to be arrested outside the gates as an illegal immigrant, and ends up back inside. Bea is put out when Jim insists on standing right beside them when they are playing cards and christens him "Fletch the Letch". Meg tries to tell him he doesn't need to watch them all the time, but he is rude to her and doesn't want her advice. Erica clashes with Jim over the amount of freedom the women can be given: she points out the Governor is the one who decides policy and sends him home early. Greg tells Jim about Meg's husband when he asks about other male staff. Jim finds letters in Lynn's bag when he searches her and Karen as they are about to leave for work and study release. The person who wrote the letters can't be identified (surely the people they were addressed to might have been a bit of a clue?), even though Erica is inclined to believe that Lynn didn't know about them. Lizzie bursts in on Meg and Greg as they are talking intimately in the surgery and promptly goes back to the laundry to tell everyone. Monica does not get her parole and wrecks the laundry: Jim subdues her easily with a judo throw when she rushes at him. Lynn still blames Jim for planting the letters on her and Doreen backs her up. Erica is angry with Jim for hitting Monnie, but she won't lay charges as he has already apologised to her. Jim is taken to see how a new prisoner is inducted when Joyce Martin brought in for receiving stolen goods and accessory to armed robbery: she recognizes Jim from visiting her husband Harry in Pentridge. Doreen gets in bed with Lynn and they are found together next morning by Meg and Jim. Jim is appalled and calls them "disgusting". Joyce reveals that she doesn't mind serving six months because she is the only one who knows where the $150,000 from her husband's last robbery is hidden. Vera comes to tell Lynn the news about her work release: it's been stopped. Notes *First appearance of Jim Fletcher. Previous Episode Episode 039 Next Episode Episode 041 Category:Episodes Category:1979 Season